Alev Lytle Croutier's SEVEN HOUSES is a lush and powerful family novel that follows four generations of Turkish women at pivotal turning points and crossroads in their lives. Their story begins in a villa in Smyrna in 1910. Esma, a tradition-defying widow with two young sons, embarks on a tragic love affair that brings another precious gift; her daughter Aida, whose astonishing beauty is both a blessing and a curse. Her sheltered daughter Amber comes of age during the music revolution of the fifties. Amber daughter Nellie is born in America and it is through her journey back to Smyrna to find her roots that the lives of all four women come full circle. Against the backdrop of history played out across an exotic global stage, from World War I through modern times, from a silk plantation in the foothills of Mount Olympus to a high-rise apartment in a U.S. city, SEVEN HOUSES tells an unforgettable tale of love, family and the struggle to find one's place in a world of limitless horizons and dizzying change.